


The Best Way to Predict the Future (Is to Create It)

by Thoughtsfullofbooks



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Blood, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Will Graham, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Gore, Hannibal Lecter is a Cannibal, Hannibal Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Murder, Mutilation, Possessive Hannibal Lecter, Possessive Will Graham, Protective Hannibal Lecter, Season/Series 01, Violence, and what, canon dialogue stealing, i wrote this during NANOWRIMO i needed the word count, its a time travel/immortal AU basically, kind of, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:08:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thoughtsfullofbooks/pseuds/Thoughtsfullofbooks
Summary: Will Graham thought that he was done with time travel once he quit the Force at the Federal Bureau of Investigation for Time Travel Anomalies and focused on his teaching instead. But, as fate would have it, a new killer surfaces that seems to outwit the Force at every turn. Will is called back to help the team as the killer rips through, not only Virginia, but also Maryland, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.Hannibal Lecter has been an Immortal for a very long time and thought he knew about every killer in the country. But when a new killer comes to terrorize the two states, Hannibal is called to help the FBITTA in capturing them; while simultaneously evading capture for his crimes as the Chesapeake Ripper.When Hannibal and Will come together to solve the case, tensions arise and even stronger feelings reveal themselves as they engage in a deadly game of deception and truth.
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

February 19th  
7:45 AM

It had been snowing for three days now. 

Will Graham woke up to one of his dogs whining by the foot of his bed, asking to be let out for their morning routine. Will sighed, blinked bleary eyes at his dogs and stood up to let them out. He grabbed his glasses from the bedside table on his way out and shoved them on his face as he walked to the door. Will whistled to the rest of his dogs and let them out as well. 

Once Will stepped outside, he immediately regretted not looking out his window to check the weather before he left the comfort of his warm bed. The thick layer of snow that covered the expanse of the field in front of his house was untouched and looked as if his home was floating in the sky. Will watched his dogs play for a moment in the snow with each other before retreating back into the warmth of his house to start getting ready for the day.

Will left the house shortly after letting the dogs back in and eating a quick breakfast. He arrived at Quantico 45 minutes later and made a beeline straight to his classroom to avoid running into Jack or anyone on the forensics team. For the past two days, there has been a constant buzz around Quantico; everyone has been talking about a new killer that just dropped a body. From what Will has heard, this definitely isn’t this killer's first kill; it’s just their first recorded one. Apparently, Jack and the rest of the team are having a bit of a problem locating the time and place as to when the kill happened so they can’t go back and catch the killer. 

On the way to his office from the parking lot back doors, Will passes four TVs on the first floor and three on the second floor where his classroom and office is. Every single one had a different news station playing with reports of the body found two days ago and possible leads that the authorities are investigating. Will tried his best not to look at any of the TVs to avoid accidentally seeing any of the crime scene photos displayed. However, no matter how hard he tried to walk quickly away from the TVs, he still could catch phrases of what the reporters were saying. Phrases like “mutilated beyond recognition…” “decapitated after the torture occurred…” and “still no word from the FBITTA…” filtered through the TV speakers and made its way to Will’s ears as he practically ran the last few yards to his classroom. Once inside, Will closed his door, locked it, and sat behind his desk with his head in his hands, trying to ease the rising panic and headache he accumulated when hearing the news. 

Flashes of years ago played behind Will’s eyes and he shook his head to rid the memories of the past he would rather like to forget. Crash landing in the snow at midnight with a broken arm; being trapped between one time and the next, the Expanse is what the scientists at the FBITTA called it; being too late to catch the serial killer he was hunting and convincing Jack he wasn’t crazy at the same time. Will could still see the Expanse when he closed his eyes at night. He was questioned for hours when he got back into the present time and told everyone what had happened. Questions like “what did you see?” “what didn’t you see?” “there is no way you should be alive, are you sure you went into the Expanse?” were repeated like a mantra over and over and over again until Will felt like he was going to snap and punch someone. Will quit the Time Travel Force that afternoon and didn’t look back, he instead focused on teaching the new recruits about how to be better than he was and, more importantly, what to do if you ever get trapped in the past like he did. 

Will spent the next ten minutes with his head in his hands, focusing on the sound of his breathing. Finally, he picked up his head and readjusted the glasses on his nose. Will took a deep breath and glanced around his classroom, reorienting himself with where he was and, more importantly, when he was. Once he was satisfied with his surroundings, Will opened his briefcase and took out his lesson plans for the upcoming classes to review them. He then pulled up his computer with the lesson plan photos and started the day. 

Will knew that most of his students only took his class because he technically invented time travel, if you are looking at it in terms of the chronological timeline of time, but Will liked to imagine that his students took the class because of his experience in the field. Now, Will doesn’t like to brag, and he especially didn’t like to be the center of attention, but, looking back at his time in the field, Will was proud of the reputation that he built up over the years. Students started to trickle in a few minutes later for his morning class and Will got back into teacher mode. Just another day at the Federal Bureau of Investigation for Time Travel Anomalies. 

* * *

February 19th  
9:45 AM

About an hour later, Will finished his lecture on how a certain killer’s past military experience helped the agents at the FBITTA catch him by learning about his fighting and, ultimately, his kill style. He addressed the class once more when he saw the classroom door open out of his peripheral. It was Jack Crawford.

“Now, I want you to think about how a certain fighting style can help us better understand the way in which an individual will kill. No one does anything randomly; all we have to do is find the patterns and execute a plan to trap these killers. Tell me the ways that you would catch this killer if you were looking at his first body. Tell me how you could have outsmarted him.” And with that, Will closed his computer and dismissed the class with their homework assignment. Will could see Jack weave in between the leaving students and watched out of the corner of his eye as Jack approached him. 

“How are you, Will?” Jack asked. 

“Fine, Jack.” Will responded and avoided eye contact. “What can I help you with?”

“I’m guessing you’ve seen the news recently? About the body that was just found?” 

Will began to pack up his folders and computer. “It’s kind of hard to miss it, Jack. It’s on every TV in this building. It’s the only thing that my students want to talk about during class. It’s kind of hard to miss it.” 

Jack nodded and thought for a moment. Then, without any preamble, asked straight out what he wanted to know: “Will you help us catch this man?” 

Will paused in his movements and took a rare moment to look right at Jack. “Why do you need me? There’s only been one body, Jack. You’ve caught killers in the past without me when more than one body was dropped. What’s so different about this one?” Will resumed his packing.

“This one’s different, Will. He’s experienced. He knows what he’s doing and how to avoid capture. This definitely isn’t his first kill.”

“So, what? You’re having trouble pinning down when the victim was killed? It’s been two days, Jack. Give the forensics team a bit more time to do their job. You’re acting as if you know there’s going to be another body in the next few hours.” Will finished packing his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and started to walk out of the classroom. Jack followed closely behind him. 

“I have every faith in the forensics team, don’t get me wrong. But they don’t work like you do, Will.” 

Will scoffed. “No one works like I do, Jack. Every psychiatrist and therapist in the world can confirm that.” Will stopped in front of the elevators and stared at a point over Jack’s left ear. “Just give them some time to work it out. I’ve seen what they can do with little to no evidence before. They’ll figure it out.” Will stepped into the elevator when the doors opened and watched Jack nod at him before the door closed. 

* * *

February 20th  
8:37 AM

“Most of the time in sexual assaults, the bite mark has a livid spot at the center, a “suck bruise”. In some cases it does not. For some killers, biting may be a fighting pattern, as much as a sexual behavior.” Will spoke on autopilot as he lectured the class in front of him, going over the different ways to profile a killer and the most efficient ways to get inside their minds. His head snapped up when Jack came into the room and started to yell at his class. 

“Ok, class dismissed. Everyone out!” The class moved with no intention to leave quickly, more curious as to why Jack Crawford just took over Professor Graham’s class so suddenly. “What did I just say? Let’s go!” The remaining straggling students practically ran out of the room as Jack stared at them with piercing eyes. 

Will threw the paper he was holding onto the table in front of him with and let out a quiet, exasperated sigh. “You’re making it difficult to provide an education, Jack.” 

Jack waited a moment before speaking. “We’ve found another body.”

Will rubbed the bridge of his nose to ease the oncoming headache he felt. “Where?” 

“In a soccer field in a Baltimore city park.” Jack waited for another beat. “We think it’s the Chesapeake Ripper.” 

Will snapped his head up to stare at the back of Jack’s head. “You don’t mean that.” 

Jack slowly nodded. “I do. So, I’m asking again, Will. Will you join this case?” 

“There’s still no leads with the first body?”

“None.”

“And you think this is the same killer?”

“I do.” 

Will sighed once more. “Fine. I’ll look at the crime scene. I assume the team is still there working on it?” 

“That’s right,” Jack responded and stood up from where he was leaning on Will’s desk. “You ready to go now?” 

Jack phrased it as a question, but Will knew it was more of a statement. Now that he agreed to rejoin the team for this case, Jack will be back to bossing Will around like there was no tomorrow. 

The time travel devices at the FBITTA were not where one might think they are stored. When dealing with time travel, it would make sense to keep travel devices under secure lock and key with 24 hour surveillance in a solid concrete basement of a building. Too many things could go wrong if an enemy or a serial killer got their hands on a time travel device and started jumping through time. However, the devices at the FBITTA were stored on the third level of the building in Quantico. Weird right?

Now, that doesn’t mean that the agents in the building didn’t take security seriously. It just meant that they had every confidence in their security system. Will never understood their trust in it and had repeatedly expressed his concerns to Jack when he was on the Force. 

In order to get to the floor housing the time travel devices, you needed to swipe a certain key card while in the elevator, have that card match up with your thumbprint and eye scan, and then, and only then did the doors close and start to move to the third floor. Once on the floor, you pass three cameras that record 24/7, four armed guards that walk the halls and check ID when they see you, another card swipe into the main room with the technicians, and then one more retinal scan just for good measure. This is what Will and Jack went through while approaching the room where the devices were stored. 

And, to top it all off, Will hated the way that the Bureau traveled. Well, he didn’t hate it. He just didn’t understand it. It’s not like they had a shortage of cars or helicopters to take them where they need to go in a speedy fashion. But it did save more time to put in a destination and time and instantly get spat out exactly where you wanted to go. Will had to admit that it also saved time; and time was of the essence in matters like this. So, to be honest, there was nothing wrong with how the Bureau traveled, Will just had some trust issues with time travel after his last field assignment. 

“Hey, Sarah,” Will said as he walked into ‘mission control’, as the techies called it. 

“Will! Well, I’m going to be honest: I never thought I would see you in here ever again,” Sarah joked. Sarah was Will’s ‘Houston’ when he worked in the field and made sure he got where and when he needed to go, and, more importantly, got back in one piece. When Will’s ‘incident’ happened a year ago, Sarah felt personally responsible for some unknown reason to Will; it wasn’t her fault that his device broke mid jump. She completely understood when Will told her he was taking himself off the Force. 

“I never thought I would be back either. But, when killers come calling…” Will let his sentence drift off, they both knew that he was the best person to catch these types of people, unfortunately. “You didn’t make any upgrades I should know about before I do this, right?” Will asked Sarah while she was behind the control computers before he strapped the device on. 

“Nope. It’s exactly the same. We changed the look of the outside to make it a bit more inconspicuous; but the mechanics are all the same,” Sarah responded. 

Will nodded and clasped the device onto his wrist, inputted the location Jack told him, and braced himself for the journey. The technicians around him gathered up papers and folders and stuck them in desk drawers to avoid having them fly all over the place as a result of the wind the two men picked up when they traveled away. 

Will was sucked into the time vortex as soon as Sarah hit the ‘Launch’ button and the wind was knocked out of his chest. He held his breath to avoid sucking in particles from the Expanse; he shut his eyes as tight as he could until he saw stars behind his vision. Will could faintly hear flashes of conversation as he flew towards his destination: children playing soccer on a field, babies laughing as they swung on swings nearby, mothers and fathers calling their kids back to the cars as they finished playing for the day. Will knew he was approaching the correct time and place as he started to feel solid ground under his feet again. 

The whole experience only takes about ten seconds. But time doesn’t work the same way in the Expanse as it does everywhere else. When Will and Jack left Quantico, it was 8:45. When they arrived at the crime scene it was 8:40. Time was a funny thing when you worked at the Bureau. Will slowly opened his eyes and found himself on a soccer field in the middle of a park. Trees lined one side of the field, revealing nothing but darkness inside the forest. The first thing Will thought was, “That’s where he came from; that’s where he waited for night.” 

Jack was already making his way over to the forensics crew and multiple agents surrounding the body when Will finally looked towards it. He stared at it for a while, taking in everything he could before moving closer, before stepping into the killer’s mind. Out of his peripheral, Will could see Beverly, Jimmy, and Brian on the forensics team stare at him with shock on their faces. Jack must not have told them that Will would be making an appearance at this scene. 

“Alright, everyone, clear the area!” Jack shouted. Will slowly moved towards the body. 

The first thing he noticed was a giant ring etched into the snow surrounding the victim. The victim was also strapped to a cross. Multiple cuts adorned the man's body, some shallow, some so deep Will could see bone. As Will neared the body, he noticed last that the man’s head wasn’t attached to his body as he previously thought it was. It was expertly cut off and placed on top of the cross. 

Once everyone was away from the crime scene, Will closed his eyes and let the pendulum swing in the darkness. Everything around him faded, the noise of the onlookers beyond the police tape, the sounds of birds and animals in the nearby forest, and the feeling of being watched by dozens of people was pushed to the recesses of his mind as he entered a new one. Will opened his eyes, and this time, he stood in the same place in the field but the moon shone overhead instead of the sun, and a man lay bound and gagged at his feet. 

“You do not know who I am. But that is okay. You don’t need to. You only need to know that your existence will soon be brought to an end.” Will stepped aside and revealed a wooden cross on the ground to the man struggling against the rope binding him. 

Will hauled the man up after nailing the cross into the ground and wrapped the rope to the cross. He undid the gag at the man’s mouth and let him scream. Will reached into the man’s mouth and cut out his tongue. “For your crimes against humanity; you are no longer allowed to infect the world with your lies again. I will soon make sure that your infection is eliminated at the source. There is no need to spread this kind of disease.” Will began to slowly cut into the man, little cuts here, bigger cuts there; his blood splashing onto the fresh snow underneath of him to create an artwork much more beautiful than the man himself. 

The man stopped moving after a while, that was when Will finally stopped in his purging. He took an axe from a bag at his feet and brought it down on the man’s neck, slicing it clean off. He mounted the head on the top of the cross and stepped back to admire his work. “You are no longer the filth you once were when we began this journey. You have been transformed. This is my design.” 

Will took a shuddering breath and opened his eyes for the last time. He looked over his shoulder to notify Jack that he was back in the present time; Jack soon joined him at the body.

“Victim’s name is Thomas Thulbert. He’s 43 years old, a Maryland politician, lives about 45 minutes from here.” Jack explained.

Will nodded. “The killer did something to him before they brought him here. Maybe some form of bloodletting; there would have been more blood on the snow. The killer came from the woods, probably hid Thulbert there until it got dark and then set up the display. Can footprint analysis confirm that?” 

“There were no footprints when we got here,” Beverly said walking up from behind Jack. 

“What?” 

“You said footprint analysis. There were no footprints around the body, just the big circle you see now. The person that reported the body stopped just before the circle and called it in. She thought it was booby-trapped or something.” 

“Well, that’s interesting,” Will muttered to himself. “Do we know what the circle is?” 

“Yeah. It’s just snow,” Beverly explained. 

“Snow? That’s it?” 

“Yup. Nothing under it, nothing around it, nothing above it. It’s just snow with a line through it. We’re taking some back to the lab right now to test if anything’s been done to it, but preliminary observations say that it’s just snow.”

“Huh,” Will said and tongued the inside of his cheek, thinking. 

“Anything you got would be helpful, Will,” Jack said.

“The victim didn’t know the killer, but the killer knew of the victim; probably saw him on TV or something. He cut out his tongue for retribution of the lies he was inevitably telling, as politicians do. He could have possibly been bloodletting the victim to purge him of some “disease”. That’s what all of the cuts could be. The beheading wasn’t necessarily part of his plan, seeing as it was done post mortem, unlike the rest of the torture, but it was a final indignaty to the victim. It was something that needed to be done,” Will explained. “And it’s definitely not the Ripper, Jack.”

“Are you sure?” 

“Positive. This killer may have certain characteristics that are attributable to the Ripper, but there are two different styles of killing going on here,” Will finished. 

“Fine, it’s not the Ripper. We just need to be looking for anyone who has a grudge against a politician now. Great,” Jack sighed. 

“Not just a grudge. This person was harmed by this man in some way. Look for recent legislation he might have passed or something he might have said at a rally recently that could physically harm another person.” 

“Alright, we’ll get someone on that.” Jack began to walk away, calling for everyone to come back and finish the scene.

“Who is that man?” Will suddenly asked Jack as he gestured near the back of the onlooking crowd with his chin. 

Jack followed Will’s gaze and spotted a man in his mid fifties looking at the crime scene with a bored looking expression on his face. The plaid suit and jacket that looked like it was $5,000 he was wearing made him stand out in the crowd like a sore thumb; but he somehow made the ensemble work. “I don’t know. Why?” Jack responded. 

Will thought for a moment, staring at the man. “It just doesn’t look like he belongs at this type of scene.” 

“If it’s about what he’s wearing, you have to remember that we are in a fairly expensive neighborhood. Almost everyone in this crowd is wearing jewelry that probably costs more than both of our cars put together.” 

“No, it’s not about what he’s wearing. Look at his expression compared to everyone else’s.” It was true that this man looked bored with the fact that he was at a murder scene. Jack scanned the rest of the crowd and realized Will was right: everyone else wore an expression of horror, disgust, andor fear on their faces. But not this man.

“You think he might be a suspect?” 

“It’s common for killers to revisit the scene of their crime shortly after committing the crime. That man doesn’t look scared about the fact that someone was killed close to where he lives. He doesn’t even look disgusted that he’s looking at a dead body right now,” Will observed. “He just seems out of place.” 

“Do you want to interview him?” 

“No. If he is the killer, we don’t want to spook him into skipping town. We can go around the nearby neighborhoods tomorrow and knock on some doors; ask questions to make it seem like we’re interviewing a bunch of people and then we can figure out who he is and if he actually poses a threat.” 

“Alright. You can head back to Quantico if you want. Unless you have anything else about the killer?” Jack said. 

“No, that’s all for right now. I’ll let you know if I think of anything else. It might come to me later on,” Will said and rubbed his temples. 

“Okay. We’ll let you know when we get a time of death on the body. And I’ll send you the crime scene folder for the last kill as well. See if you see any similarities in them.” 

“Will do,” Will said, but he was already walking away. As he began to adjust the device on his wrist to go back to Quantico, he took one last look at the onlooking crowd and was shocked to see the man from before staring back at him. Like, directly staring at him. Will felt a shiver down his spine that wan’t from the snow sinking into his pant legs. He stared back at the man for a second and then resumed what he was doing with the device. When he looked up for the final time, the man was gone. Will searched the ever growing crowd of people behind the police line but couldn’t find him. He just vanished. 

Will shook it from his mind and traveled back to Quantico in a second. He got to work on creating a profile for the killer once he was back in his still empty classroom. Ten minutes later, one of Jack’s secretaries dropped off the case file on the last victim. It was very thin. Will took it and set it aside. It was going to be a long night.


	2. Chapter 2

February 21st  
9:15 AM

Will had someone take over his classes for the next week. He knows how hard Jack works the Force on a day to day basis and he would never have time to do both. Will dropped off his lesson plans to the substitute teacher when he got to Quantico in the morning. He then ran into Jack in the elevator down to the lab. 

“Ready to get back into it?” Jack asked as a greeting.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Will replied. 

They found their way into the lab ten minutes later. Jimmy and Brian were on either side of the table that held Thomas Thulbert; Beverly was on the other side of the lab, checking something under a microscope. 

“Alright, what have we got?” Jack asked as soon as he and Will stepped foot into the lab. 

“Thomas Thulbert, age 43, cause of death is excessive mutilation followed by decapitation.” Jimmy said. “Decapitation occurred shortly after death, there was minimal bleeding because of the style of torture that took place before hand.” 

“No time of death yet. The temperature caused the body to freeze quickly and distorted the readings from normal lab testings,” Beverly Katz added. 

Jack nodded, frustration creeping into his body language at the lack of progress on catching the killer. “What about the cross? Get anything on that?” 

“Wood from the cross matches the wood from the forest at the edge of the park; dirt samples also match. It’s possible that our killer chopped down a tree that night and crafted the cross while he waited for the park to empty,” Brian chimed in, the wood analysis in his hand. 

“There was no axe found at the scene?” Jack asked.

“No,” Beverly said.

“There wouldn’t be,” Will chimed in. “He’s not going to start leaving evidence at his scenes. An intelligent psychopath like this has thought of everything when planning his kills. He probably didn’t even cut the tree down that night; he just left it there until he was ready.” 

“Well, in any case, we’re running some tests on the wood now to see if we can figure out when it was cut down by analyzing the frost patterns and insect activity inside the tree. We’re also looking if the killer left any fingerprints on the wood. It’s a long shot but it’s the only thing we’ve got right now,” Beverly continued. 

“Alright, get working on that and get back to me once you have something. Will, follow me, we have an update on that man from the crime scene you found suspicious.” Jack motioned for Will to follow him to his office as the forensics team started working on the tree wood. 

“Did we figure out who that man was?” Will asked once they left the lab. 

“We didn’t really need to do much research to find out who he was. One of our interns saw him plastered on the front page of the Baltimore Sun the other day; his name and information was underneath it. Pretty easy from there.” 

“So, who is he?” 

“Name’s Hannibal Lecter. He’s a psychiatrist based in Baltimore, Maryland. Attends a lot of fundraisers and social events; he’s part of Baltimore’s high society and pretty well known around the city. He lives about an hour and a half from here.” 

So, an hour and a half later, Jack and Will arrived on Hannibal Lecter’s doorstep pretending to conduct mandatory door to door interviews. They stopped at a few houses before going to Lecter’s just in case he happened to be watching from his window. FBITTA surveillance confirmed that Lecter hadn’t left his house yet today so they knew that he would be home when they knocked. 

And at home he was. Almost as soon as Will and Jack knocked on the door, Hannibal appeared and ushered them in after introductions were made. They both refused offers of coffee and other types of drink when Lecter offered and insisted they got right down to business. 

“Of course; I’m sure there is lots to do at the Bureau that needs attending to.” Hannibal gestured them into his sitting room and to the couches near the empty fireplace. 

“Yes, so we’ll get right to it. We don’t want to waste any of your time, Doctor,” Jack said as he sat across from Hannibal. 

Hannibal smiled back. “I’m always happy to help the FBITTA.” 

“Right. So, as you may or not know, a man was, unfortunately, murdered a few days ago around here. We are going around the surrounding neighborhoods to see if anyone had seen anything weird these past few days,” Jack began. 

“I had heard of the man found in the park. Rather unfortunate; I hadn’t read any more about it, however, I had a few errands to complete that day and it slipped my mind as soon as I was on my way to the first one,” Hannibal answered. 

“The man in question is Thomas Thulbert. He’s a Maryland politician, lives a few minutes from here,” Will said. “Did you know him or know of him?” 

“As a matter of fact I do know him,” Hannibal said. He didn’t elaborate further. “I haven’t seen him in many months, however.” 

Will took a few moments to look at Hannibal, really look at him, to see if he showed any signs of lying through body language. Will studied the other man’s sitting position, how he leaned back in the chair and how his hands rested in his lap. He was perfectly still. Will distantly heard Jack continue with the questions and he stared at Lecter. He took a rare moment to look into Lecter’s eyes. He didn’t find anything incriminating in them. At one point, Hannibal and Will met gazes and Will felt as if all the air had been sucked out of his lungs. Hannibal Lecter had the most penetrating stare Will had ever come into contact with. He quickly looked away and didn’t look back after that. Lecter answered all of Jack’s questions perfectly, giving more than adequate alibis for the times they suspect the two victims were killed. 

Something about him just threw Will off though. He wasn’t sure if it was how Lecter was dressed or how he held himself while he was walking them both to the door after the questioning ended, but it just didn’t sit right with Will. He knew he had to do more research on him after they left. 

“Thank you for your time, Doctor,” Jack politely said once they got to the door.

“Any time, Agent Crawford, Agent Graham. Drive safe,” Hannibal said and watched them walk to the awaiting car and driver at the end of his driveway. 

As they drove off, Will got the impression that Hannibal Lecter got more from that meeting than Jack or him did. 

* * *

February 22nd  
6:30 PM

“No way. How did we miss this?” Will set down the case file in front of the ever growing pile in front of him and dialed Jack’s number on his phone. Jack picked up on the third ring.

“Will. What’s going on?” Jack answered. 

“I’m doing some research on Lecter right now. Something just seemed off about him when we interviewed him and I found it. Lecter’s an immortal.”

“An immortal? Are you sure?” Jack asked.

“I’m looking at his registration form right now. ‘Count Hannibal Lecter the Eighth; born 20th of January, 1496.’ His address matches and so does his employment. I knew I sensed something off about him.” Will threw the case file into his bag as well as some other binders and stood up to leave. “I’m going to head back over to his house, ask him some more questions, see if I can get anything more out of him.” 

“Do you think you’ll need backup?”

“No, I don’t think Lecter’s dangerous. I just want to know why he hid this from us.” Will made it out to his car and threw his bag into the passenger seat. “It’ll be quick; 20 minutes top.” 

Jack still sounded unsure. “If you’re sure about this then go on ahead, I won’t stop you. Just call for backup if anything seems freaky.” 

“Will do,” Will answered and hung up the phone. He slid into the driver’s seat and began to pull out of the parking lot of Quantico and onto the highway that led to Baltimore.

* * *

February 22nd  
7:57 PM

“Hi, Doctor Lecter. I’m not sure if you remember me, I’m Special Agent Will Graham from the FBITTA. We spoke briefly yesterday about the murder in the park a few miles from here?” Will greeted Dr. Lecter as he opened his door to his home. The scent of freshly cooked meat and wine was wafting through the front door and it was the best thing that Will had ever smelt in his entire life. He was momentarily distracted by the smell and had to reel himself back in to focus on what Dr. Lecter was saying. 

“Will, of course! Please come in.” Hannibal opened the door wider for Will to step in through then closed it behind him with a soft click. “Can I take your jacket?” Hannibal offered. 

“Oh no, thank you. I won’t be staying for long. I just had a few follow up questions from yesterday pertaining to the case. I’m sorry for stopping by so late,” Will added. If the smell of the kitchen was anything to go by, Dr. Lecter was either just sitting down for dinner or is currently in the middle of it. 

“It’s quite alright, Will. My home is always open to the FBITTA. I’m happy to help in any way I can.” Hannibal began moving into the kitchen, Will followed close on his heels. On the way to the kitchen, they walked through the dining room; Will noticed the two dinner plates on the table immediately. 

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Will said as he gestured to the table laden with food and drinks. 

“I had a colleague over for dinner. You just missed him, in fact,” Hannibal explained.

“He didn’t finish his dinner,” Will observed.

“He had an urgent call of some sorts, and had to leave suddenly. This benefits you, as I have dessert for two.” Hannibal smiled at Will over his shoulder and led him into the kitchen. 

Once in the kitchen, Hannibal grabbed an oven towel and pulled two french looking pastries out of the oven and set them on the kitchen counter. “So, what follow up questions does the FBITTA have for me that pertains to the case?” 

Will shifted on his feet, suddenly unsure about how to broach the topic. “Well, the questions pertain to the case a little bit but they mostly are about you, personally.” Will gazed up at Dr. Lecter to gage his reaction. “You’re not under investigation or anything like that,” Will added. “Well, not officially,” he thought in his head. 

“Alright. So, what would you like to know about me, Will. I am an open book.” Hannibal finished plating his french pastry masterpiece with a chocolate drizzle and handed one of the plates over to Will. 

Will thanked Dr. Lecter and decided to just come right out with his question. “You never mentioned that you were immortal.” Okay not so much a question; more of a statement. 

“The subject was never mentioned in our previous conversation,” Hannibal replied lightly. “But, if you had asked, I would have told you.” 

“So, I’m guessing you’ve filled out the Immortal Registration Form?” Will regretted asking the question as soon as he did. Why would he bring that up? Of course Dr. Lecter has filled out the form; all immortals were required to do so under federal law. He had a copy of the form in his briefcase in his car right now. “Sorry, I don’t know why I asked.” 

Hannibal chuckled. “That’s alright. It’s a logical thing to ask given your employment. And yes, I have completed the form.” 

Will nodded. “Good. That’s good…” Will trailed off, now unsure of what to talk about. Why was he so bad at the social aspect of the field work? Well, he knew why. But why did it not get easier over the years for him like everyone else? Will looked down at the pastry in front of him on the counter and dug his fork into it. He needed something to do that didn’t involve staring at Dr. Lecter and blabbering about FBITTA official forms. 

“Wine?” Hannibal produced a bottle of red wine out of nowhere and offered a glass of it to Will. 

“Um, no, thank you. I shouldn’t,” Will said, frowning slightly. Was he really so distracted that he completely missed Lecter pulling a whole bottle of wine out to offer to him?

“Of course; you are still on the clock.” Hannibal put away the second glass and instead drank from the one he offered Will. 

When Will sank his teeth into the pastry on his fork, he had to repress a moan that threatened to escape his mouth. Will didn’t know what he was eating, but it was the best thing he had ever tasted in his life. “This is delicious.” Was all Will could say before he went in for another bit. When was the last time he had an actual meal that didn’t come from the FBITTA cafeteria? Will had lost count of the days. 

Hannibal politely smiled. “Thank you.” 

Will met his gaze and saw for the briefest moment something flash behind Dr. Lecter’s eyes. Will couldn’t make out exactly what it was; but whatever it was, it brought him back to the present time and made him realize he was there for a reason. And that reason was not to eat chocolate french pastries in a possible serial killer’s kitchen. That look also did something that irritated Will to no end. It confused him. Will prided himself on being able to read people’s expressions fairly well; it was his job after all. But what just happened in Hannibal’s face both confused and concerned Will. How could he clear this man of killing someone if he can’t confidently read his expressions? 

Hannibal must have noticed the odd look on Will’s face as he tried to identify the look behind his eyes because he asked, “Is something wrong, Will?” 

Will immediately schooled his features back to normal. “Oh, no. I was just, uh…” Will cleared his throat to regain some composure. “I was just trying to figure out what kind of pastry this was.” “Nice save. Like you know anything about french pastries.” 

Hannibal must be a mind reader or something because he smiled as if he knew exactly what Will was thinking at that moment. “It’s a canelé,” Hannibal answered simply. “It can be a quite tricky dish to perfect. But, if done right, the outcome will be a work of art.” 

“Oh. It’s very good,” Will repeated his earlier praise and then put his fork down. He had work to do. “So, about those extra questions I had…”

“Yes, of course.” Hannibal put his fork down before he got a chance to take a bite and gave Will his full attention. 

“You had said during our previous meeting that you knew the deceased, but you never specified how you knew him,” Will began.

“Did I not? My mistake, Will. I did not know Mr. Thulbert personally, I only spoke with him a few times over the years when we happened to be at the same event, such as the opera or a fundraiser. That being said, we did not see eye to eye on most matters, political wise, so we kept our brief relationship as acquaintances as just that: acquaintances,” Hannibal answered. 

“Have you been to the park recently. That is, the park in which the body was found?” Will baited Hannibal. He wanted to see if he would admit to being at the crime scene a few days ago. If he was the killer, he would deny he was even in the same 50 miles as the body. 

“I did visit the park a few days ago. It may seem a bit morbid but I had heard about the finding of the body around my neighborhood and was curious. However, I was only there for about 10 or 15 minutes and then left to go to the grocery store.” 

Will’s heart sank a bit, he could sense the truth in Dr. Lecter’s voice. He was clear of this crime. “Okay.” Will glanced down a bit to figure out where to go next with his questioning. He had nothing left. Will looked back up at Dr. Lecter. “Well, Dr. Lecter, thank you so much for your time this evening and for cooperating with the FBITTA.” 

“It was my pleasure, Will.” 

The two men shared a long look together. Will momentarily broke his ‘no eye contact’ rule and searched Lecter’s eyes for any last minute sign of lies, knowing he wouldn’t find anything, but finding himself unable to look away all the same. He found himself being drawn into the other man’s eyes; Dr. Lecter had hazel eyes that weren’t completely hazel. They were speckled with a hint of yellow that gave the appearance of glowing slightly when they hit the light just right. Around his eyes, Will could see the presence of laugh lines from years of laughing and enjoying life to the fullest. When you’re immortal, what’s to stop you from doing whatever you want to do with your life? 

“Well, I, uh,” Will cleared his throat and managed to pull his eyes away. “I should probably get going. Thank you again for the, uh, pastry, Dr. Lecter. It was really good.” Will managed to stutter out. 

“Of course. Let me walk you out.” Hannibal walked around the counter and led the way to the front door. Will followed a few steps behind. 

Hannibal opened the front door for Will when they arrived in the foyer. Will stepped past Hannibal and onto the front porch. “Good night, Dr. Lecter,” Will said and headed down the driveway to his car. 

“Good night, Will,” Hannibal responded as he watched him walk down the drive. 

Will could feel Hannibal’s eyes on the back of his neck as he got in his car and drove away. He tried not to think about how he could still feel them watching him even when he left the neighborhood and turned onto the highway. 

* * *

February 23  
1:00 PM 

“Will, there you are,” Jack said once Will opened the door to his office and stepped inside. “You remember Dr. Lecter, don’t you?” 

Will was stopped dead in his tracks, his hand still on the doorknob to Jack’s office door, and surveyed the two men in front of him. He quickly regained his posture, however, and cleared his throat to speak. “Of course. Dr. Lecter, how are you?” Will went and sat in the empty chair facing Jack’s desk, right next to Dr. Lecter, and slipped a case file onto the desk. 

“I am doing fine, Will. Thank you,” Hannibal replied smoothly. “Although, I must insist you call me Hannibal seeing as though I am already on a first name basis with you. There is no need for such formalities.” 

“Oh, um, okay, Hannibal.” Will tested the word out in his mouth and found the feeling unfamiliar, but not exactly unpleasant. The biggest question he had was why Dr. Lec-- Hannibal was in Jack’s office in the first place. Weren’t we just trying to frame him for murder two days ago? Will directed his question at Jack with a look and hoped that Hannibal couldn’t read his expression that well from where he was currently sitting. 

Jack must have sensed a question coming from Will, but, unfortunately, once he answered it, it only left Will with more questions. “Will, Dr. Lecter will be consulting with us on the park killings to help us build a more stable psychological profile on our killer.” 

Will tried to keep his facial features under control so as to not let Hannibal know that he was completely against the idea for a myriad of reasons. The biggest one being that he still half-suspected Hannibal knew more than he was telling them about the park killings. Instead, he plastered on as much of a smile as he could and turned to the man sitting next to him. “Welcome to the team.” Was all he could manage out. 

Hannibal nodded his head in response. “Thank you. I look forward to helping in any way that I can.” 

Jack spent the next few minutes catching up Hannibal on the case so far and the evidence they’ve collected so far. Which wasn’t much. In all honesty, there was no reason for Will to be there at all. Jack did most of the talking for the meeting with Hannibal chiming in to ask questions every once in a while. At the end, Jack had Hannibal sign a nondisclosure agreement and gave him a copy of the file on what the news had been calling the Slasher. Hannibal left a few minutes later to head back to his own practice in Baltimore. That left Will and Jack alone in the office. 

“Jack, what the hell?” Will rounded on Jack as soon as Hannibal left the room. 

“What did you just say?” Jack responded.

“I said ‘what the hell’. Why is Dr. Lecter consulting on this case with us. We were just trying to frame him for murder like two days ago. And not just any murder, this murder. Why would you let him consult and have access to all of the case files we have on the killer?” Will explained. 

‘You just told me yesterday that he was innocent of these crimes. Plus, he could be useful in helping solve this case.” 

“How? And even if he is innocent, who’s to say that he’s not guilty of anything else? I get a bad feeling whenever I’m near him. I can’t explain it.” 

“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way. We’ve checked his background as far as our resources go, He’s clean, Will. And, he could be useful to us, seeing as he’s an immortal. Maybe he has some kind of knowledge on this type of torture; and he is a psychiatrist, he’s able to understand the killer’s motives and plan his next step.” 

Will fell silent and let the thought of working with Hannibal run through his brain for a moment. Then, seeing no way out of it, said, “Fine. Just have him send over his profile of the killer to me sometime soon. I’ll look over it and decide how good he really is.” 

Jack nodded and Will could tell that was the end of the conversation. He glanced over at the chair that Hannibal had occupied just a few minutes ago before leaving the office. He really hated working with new people.


	3. Chapter 3

February 24  
10:00 AM

Having a substitute take over for his classes at Quantico meant that Will didn’t have to get there until later in the day. They weren't making any progress on the Slasher case other than following leads that ended up going nowhere and interviewing possible suspects that turned out to have solid alibis. By the time Will entered the lab, he knew that there would be nothing exciting waiting for him. He briefly wondered how easy it would be to sneak into the lab where the time travel devices were stored so he could take one and get this day over with. 

However, when Will walked into the lab, he could sense that something had changed either last night after he left or earlier this morning. Beverly, Jimmy, and Brian were excitedly talking and gesturing to the body on the table and didn’t stop until Will caught their attention. “What’s going on?” 

“Oh, Will, there you are! Listen, we may have got something,” Beverly said. “So, you know how all of the cuts on the body are random and only seemed to be in the most sensitive parts?” 

“Right,” Will said, now a little confused. 

“Well, it turns out they’re not random! Actually, they are. But they’re not.”

“What?” 

“What Beverly means,” Jimmy began, “Is that the cuts follow a specific type of torture method that was used all the way up until 1905 and then banned. It was primarily used by the Chinese and Vietnamese to punish criminals who committed a capital offense like treason, matricide, patricide, or mass murder. The practice is called Lingchi.” 

“You ever heard of 'Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts’?” Brian asked. Will nodded. “It was based off of this style of torture. It literally translates to the slow process, the lingering death, or slow slicing.” 

“So, our killer is some sort of vigilante?” Will asked. “Or he may think that he is. As far as we know, Thulbert didn’t commit any capital crimes to be punished for.” 

“Maybe not. But our killer may think he did something just as bad,” Beverly said. 

“What could someone do that would justify this type of killing?” Brian asked.

“Everyone has their own definitions of bad.” Will walked over to the table and took another look at the cuts and slices decorating the body. “He must have done something to anger our killer. Doesn’t necessarily have to be bad by society’s standards either; just bad to the man we are looking for.” 

Soon after that, Jack came into the lab and asked for an update. Jimmy filled him in on what they were just talking about and a little more history in Lingchi. 

“We need to find anyone who knows a good bit about this type of torture method and why it was used.” Jack finally said. 

“Great, so someone who has access to Wikipedia?” Brain said. Jack glared at him. “What? That’s what the internet is used for! And it’s not like we’re the only ones who have access to time travel anymore, Jack. We could be looking for anyone who could get their hands on one of these devices and go back in time to learn from the Originals.” 

“Alright, so who do we know of that can get their hands on a travel device?” Jack asked. 

“Any government agent or employee with high enough clearance, black market dealers, the rich and powerful of the world,” Will listed off. “The technology has become pretty popular over the past few years. Not to mention pretty accessible.” 

“Get a list together of possible suspects.” Jack directed the question to the forensics team. He then turned to Will. “I want you to work with Dr. Lecter on this one, Will. He might know something about this kind of killing; he was around when it was popular. Don’t give me that look,” Jack added when Will flashed a look of annoyance at the other man. “The whole reason I brought him on was to consult on this case. We have to narrow down suspects before this man kills again.”  
* * *

February 25th  
8:45AM

Will shuddered as he left the reconstruction of the most recent Slasher kill. It was bad. It wasn’t just angry, it was personal. It was vengeful. “She knew her killer. Or, she was at least familiar with them. This kill is personal.” Will continued his slow circle around the victim. He followed the circle etched into the snow, observing Mrs. Roosevelt’s limp figure from all angles. 

“How do you know that this is personal? That doesn’t match with the killer’s profile,” Jack observed. 

“No, it doesn’t. Whatever she did to incur the wrath of our killer, he felt as if it was well deserved. This wasn’t planned.” Will moved closer to the body to point out a few missing body parts. “Well, it was; but not like the other one. She did something to spur our killer into killing sooner than he wanted to. He took her tongue to silence her, whether because she was screaming too much, or he felt as if she lied in some way. He took her eyes as punishment because she was probably having an affair. She is not allowed to look at anyone the same way she looked at them. And now she never will,” Will muttered those last two things under his breath so he wouldn’t alarm the others with the dark twist his brain just took. It was too easy to get lost in the killer’s brain sometimes. 

“She was having an affair?” Jack asked. 

Will nodded. “Her left ring finger is cut off right above the knuckle, but you can still see the outline of a ring below the cut. He wanted us to know that she had been unfaithful somehow.” Will looked around towards the forensics crew and police officers surrounding the body. “See if you can find a wedding ring anywhere. I don’t think the killer would take it with him. He got everything he came for when he took the organs.” 

“Okay, so we’re looking for ex-boyfriends, an ex-husband maybe, the husband’s friends,” Jack listed off. 

“We can start with that. If she was smart about it she wouldn’t have any record of an affair on a phone or computer, but we can also search all of that when we interview her husband,” Will added. “We still have to find a connection between her and the other victim too. Who knows, maybe she was having an affair with Thulbert and someone found out about it.” 

“That would insinuate that the killer is done.” Jack thought for a moment. “In any case, if he’s not done, this is good news. This means the killer is getting sloppy, right? He acted without a proper plan and did this out of rage and jealousy,” Jack said. “He could slip up and that’s when we’ll catch him.”

“On the contrary,” Will said. “I think he’s just getting started.” 

* * *

February 26  
10:30 PM

“Now think about killing Mrs. Marlow. Why did she deserve this? Tell me your design. Tell me who you are.” Will closed his laptop and dismissed his class. They filed out one by one until Will was alone in the room. The quiet didn’t last long, however, because, soon enough, Jack walked into the room. 

“Will, good you’re still here.” He seemed ticked off about something. 

“Yeah, my class just ended. What’s up, did we get anything on the Slasher case? We find out who the victim is yet?” Will finished packing his things and stared at a spot just over Jack’s shoulder. 

“No. Worse, actually. We’re taking the lead on another case that just came in. It’s based in Minnesota: missing persons case.”

“Missing persons isn’t really our thing. Especially not when we have a bigger case like the Slasher going on,” Will said.

“Yeah, well they think that this isn’t just a missing persons case. It’s another killer; and he’s not slowing down any time soon.”

Will sighed and followed Jack out of his classroom. 

* * * 

“How many girls?” Will moved towards the board that Jack had set up in his office with the girls’ names, ages, and last known location. It sat right next to the Slasher case board. Dr. Lecter had joined him and Jack in the office a few minutes ago and Will was actively avoiding both looking and talking to him for as long as he could. 

“Four, so far,” Jack answered. 

“Tell me, then, how many confessions?” Hannibal asked. He joined Will at the board. 

“Twelve dozen, the last time I checked. None of them had any details until this morning. And then they all had details. Some genius in Duluth PD took a photograph of Elise Nichols’ body with his cell phone, shared it with his friends, and then Freddy Lounds posted it on Tattlecrime.com,” Jack again answered.

Will went back to his seat at the head of Jack’s desk. Looking at the girl’s photos coupled with the Slasher victims was proving too much this early in the morning. “Tasteless.”

“Do you have trouble with taste?” Hannibal also went back to his chair at Jack’s desk to speak with Will. 

Will, keeping Hannibal in his peripheral as he walked behind him, took a sip of his coffee. “My thoughts are often not tasty.”

“Nor mine. No effective barriers.”

“I build forts.”

“Associations come quickly.” Hannibal observed.

“So do forts,” Will grimaced. 

Hannibal turned to Will and smiled at his last rebuttal. “Not fond of eye contact, are you?” 

“Eyes are distracting, you see too much, you don’t see enough. And-And it’s hard to focus when you’re thinking, um, “Oh, those whites are really white”, or, “He must have hepatitis”, or, “Oh, is that a burst “vein?” So, yeah, I try to avoid eyes whenever possible. Jack?” He called out to the man in question so as to direct the conversation back to what really mattered.

“Yes?” Jack looked up from his desk and didn’t catch on to what Will was trying to accomplish. He stayed quiet and went to retrieve something from the board, leaving Will and Hannibal alone at the desk. 

Hannibal took a moment to stare at Will, gathering a bit of information from the man in front of him without speaking, Then, “I imagine what you see and learn touches everything else in your mind. Your values and decency are present yet shocked at your associations, appalled at your dreams. No forts in the bone arena of your skull for things you love.”

Will looked affronted. “Whose profile are you working on? Whose profile is he working on?” He shot the last question at Jack. This is exactly what he thought would happen when he started working with a psychiatrist. 

“I’m sorry, Will,” Hannibal said, clearly not sorry at all. “Observing is what we do. I can’t shut mine off any more than you can shut yours off.” He was just surprised that Will held his gaze for so long after he admitted to ‘avoiding it whenever possible’. 

“Please, don’t psychoanalyze me. You won’t like me when I’m psychoanalyzed.” Will began to collect his things and leave the room. 

“Will,” Jack sighed. 

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go give a lecture on psychoanalyzing.” His next class didn’t actually start for another hour, but he didn’t want to spend one more minute with Hannibal Lecter if he didn’t have to. Will stormed out of the office without looking back. 

* * *

March 1st  
12:00 PM

Later that week, the forensics team finally found a lead pertaining to the Minnesota Shrike case. A pipe thread was found on the nightgown of Elise Nichols. The pipe coating was matched with several companies based in Minnesota, so Jack flew Hannibal and Will to Minnesota to investigate. 

Hannibal and Will drove in the same car to the first pipe company to begin their investigation. They rode in somewhat comfortable silence. Will had cooled down a bit since their last interaction at Quantico where he stormed out of Jack’s office. The breakfast did help, Will had to admit. They arrived at their first location at noon. 

“Two fellas from the FBITTA They’re going through drawers now. Putting papers in file boxes. Yes. They’re taking things.” Dixie sneaked a glance over at the two men behind her who entered her office just a few minutes ago. Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome and Man Who Probably Hasn’t Slept in Two Weeks were shuffling through all the papers of past employees, something about a FBITTA investigation. Dixie didn’t want to get involved and simply pointed in the direction of the right filing cabinet when they asked. “No. They didn’t say whe -- Yes, they can. What did you say your names were?” Just then, one of them held up a resignation letter from the last batch of workers. 

“Garret Jacob Hobbs,” Will half-asked, as if saying the name would suddenly bring up memories of who exactly the man was to Dixie. 

“One of our pipe threaders.” Dixie responded. “Those are all the resignation letters. Plumbers union requires them whenever members finish a job.” She turned back to her phone quickly. “I’ll call you back.” 

“Did Mr. Hobbs have a daughter?” Will continued. 

“Might have.” Dixie shrugged. 

“Eighteen or nineteen, wind chafed? Plain but pretty? She would have auburn hair. About this tall.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t keep company with these people.” 

“What is it about Garret Jacob Hobbs you find so peculiar?” Hannibal glanced over at the paper in Will’s hand, looking for the same discrepancy that Will found. 

“Left a phone number. No address.” Will stated it like it was obvious. 

“Therefore he has something to hide?” Hannibal asked. Looking at it, it did seem a bit suspicious the box was blank. He looked at Will curiously, more interested now in how fast his brain worked in order to quickly pick that information up. 

“Everyone else left an address. He also missed work for days at a time.” He turned back to Dixie. “You have an address for Mr. Hobbs?”

Ten minutes later, Hannibal, Will, and Dixie were packing up the boxes of all of the worker’s resignation letters into the back of the rental car. Will was just about to head back inside the trailer to get one of the last boxes when he looked up to see Hannibal knock a few of the papers off a box as he was handing it down to Dixie. 

“I got it,” he said and walked over to help Dixie clean up the papers. As he finished cleaning them up, he thought to himself, “Why didn’t Lecter just stick those papers in the box?” 

* * *

Will’s stare made him look as though he was a dead man standing up. And he was. His brain completely shut down all functioning around 12 minutes ago; his internal clock seemed to be the only thing ticking. Tick, tick, ticking by. 

He should be happy: they caught the killer and saved who knows how many girl’s lives from him. So, why did he feel so empty inside? Will knew why, of course. Abigail Hobbs almost died by her father’s hand and Will was powerless to stop it. If it wasn’t for Hannibal, she would be dead right now. Speaking of Hannibal, Will sees the man himself step in front of his field of view and lean his head down to look into his eyes, half hidden by blood-stained glasses. Hannibal speaks, but Will is too far away in his own head to hear anything he says clearly. He distanly hears Hannibal say something about a hospital and then something else about Abigail. Will thinks he hears the rise of Hannibal’s voice indicating the presence of a question, he nods to the best of his ability and gets into the passenger side of the rental car behind him. He’s not sure what the question was, but it’s getting him out of the general vicinity of the Hobb’s house, and that’s all he wants right now. 

Will doesn’t know how long he was in the car for. He vaguely remembers Hannibal speaking to him during the ride, but all he could do was hum in response to whatever he was saying. They arrived at a hospital soon after and Will realized what Hannibal was talking about at the Hobb’s house. Abigail was brought here most likely. The paramedics need her information and need to know what happened to her. He needed to fill Jack in on what happened. These three things were the first clear thoughts Will had, he reached into his pocket to grab his phone to give Jack a call.

Hannibal must have realized what Will’s train of thought was because he reached out his hand to grab Will’s wrist. “Not now, Will. You can call Jack later. Right now, Abigail Hobbs needs us.” 

Will normally had a very strict ‘no touching’ rule. But right now, he was too tired to argue with anyone. Especially when that person was right. He slowly nodded his head and finally looked up at the building in front of him. He really hated hospitals. 

* * *

As it turns out, Will didn’t really need to do much talking while at the front desk. Hannibal took the lead at explaining their predicament, easily charming the front desk receptionist with a nice smile and sparkling eyes. Hannibal got all the necessary paperwork for Abigail and led Will to one of the empty sets of chairs near the back corner. 

Will glanced around the room, looking for something to stare at to focus on. Nothing grabbed his attention right away so he turned to watch Hannibal fill in the paperwork the hospital gave him. Will stared at the other man’s penmanship and followed his hand as it made the strokes necessary to write on top the lines. 

Hannibal paused for a moment and turned to Will. “What is your phone number, Will?” 

Will blinked and stared at Hannibal. “What?”

“Your phone number; for the second emergency contact.” Hannibal said it as if it was obvious that they would put their own information down for Abigail. But then again, who else would go on that line? Hannibal must have been thinking the same thing. “Would you rather I put Jack Crawford’s number down?” 

“No. No, that wouldn’t be a very good idea.” Will shook his head and gave Hannibal his number. He watched the man’s hand again as he wrote out the numbers, following the motion of the pen with his eyes. 

Finally, Hannibal finished filling out the paperwork to the best of his ability and stood to return it to the lady at the desk. Before leaving, however, Hannibal set down the clipboard and removed his jacket, he handed it to Will. “Put this on, Will. You still have blood on your clothes; it’s probably not this best thing to see in a hospital waiting room.” He turned and left before Will had time to protest. 

Will stared at the jacket in his hands for a moment before shrugging it on. Hannibal was probably right. He reached up to take off his most likely soaked-in-blood glasses but found out that he wasn’t wearing them. He must have taken them off in the car on the way over. He cleaned off the blood on his hands the best he could in the house while the crime scene cleanup crew came in, but Will’s hands were still tainted red. He stopped looking at them. 

Hannibal returned shortly after. “Abigail is in surgery now. She will probably be there for the next hour or so.”

Will nodded numbly. The only thing he could say was, “I might get blood on your jacket.” It wasn’t what he wanted to say, but it was all he could format at the moment. 

Hannibal lightly chuckled. “That’s alright. I know how to get blood out of clothes rather easily.”

Will raised a questioning eyebrow at the man sitting next to him. That didn’t seem normal. 

“I was an emergency room surgeon for many years. And a cardiothoracic surgeon for many years before that. It was very rare if I came home without at least a little blood on my clothing, try as I might to avoid it.” Well, that explained it. 

They sat in the waiting room for the next hour in relative silence. Hannibal occasionally asked Will questions, was he hungry or thirsty, did he want to step outside for a moment to get some fresh air, things like that. Will said no to all three of those things. He wanted to be there when Abigail was out of surgery. 

Finally, the surgeon came into the waiting room and called their names out. Both Hannibal and Will stood up and went over to the doctor. 

“Abigail is going to be fine. She’s in an induced coma right now so she can recover from her surgery unimpeded,” The doctor told them.

“When do you think she’s going to be awake?” Will asked. 

The doctor sighed. “Could be a few days. It could be a week. It depends on how well her body responds to the medication she’s on and if the cut on her neck gets infected or not.” The doctor motioned behind her to the elevators. “She’s sleeping right now, but you’re allowed to visit her if you would like.” 

Will and Hannibal immediately nodded their heads and the doctor led them to the elevators and to the correct floor. She opened the door to Abigail’s room and stepped back so the two men could walk through to get to her. After Hannibal and Will were in the room, she closed the door behind her and gave them some privacy. 

Hannibal walked to the side of the bed that was the closest to the machines that were hooked up to Abigail and glanced at them in order to gage the girl’s condition. Will slowly walked to the other side and took Abigail’s hand in his. He stared at the bandage on her neck. “This is my fault,” Will breathed out. 

“How is this your fault, Will?” Hannibal asked curiously. “You’re not the one who cut this girl’s neck.”

“I know. But, maybe if I was a bit faster getting into the house… or if we found the paperwork an hour beforehand… we could have… He must have known we were coming. Someone must have tipped him off, there’s no way he could have known on his own…” Will muttered under his breath. 

“Will, stop.” Will met Hannibal’s eyes across Abigail’s sleeping form. “You did everything you could for Abigail. She is alive because of you.” 

Will sat in the chair beside the bed and was silent for a few minutes. He let go of Abigail’s hand and stared into his palms. He could still see the remains of her blood under his nails and on his cuticles. “I feel like Lady MacBeth,” he half-joked. 

Hannibal cocked his head to the side with a small smile on his face. He also sat next to the bed and looked at Will. “‘Yet here’s a spot. Out, damned spot. Out, I say,’” Hannibal quotes. “The only crime Lady MacBeth committed was fulfilling the prophecy that was brought to her husband. Fate commanded it be done and she played her part.” Hannibal stared at Will for a moment longer and then asked, “Who commanded this act to be done, Will? Was it fate, or something else?” 

“It was Jack who commanded this to be done,” Will quietly answered.

“‘What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”’ Hannibal continued. “We are not at fault here, Will. No one can lay guilt on us because we are not guilty for this act. We played our parts. And these are the results of those acts.” 

“‘Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’” Will finished the quote and looked to Hannibal. They locked eyes for a moment, then Will turned to watch over Abigail and the conversation ended.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> I hope you all like the first chapter of this new series; I had a lot of fun writing it and I also have a lot planned for this story! As of right now, I am planning on this being around 10 chapters (including an epilogue) and updating hopefully once a week so be on the lookout for the updates. 
> 
> I will be updating the tags as the story progresses so nothing is spoiled too soon so be sure to check those to keep yourself safe!
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading


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